Somerset skipper Justin Langer's career could have reached a premature end after the Sabres crashed to a heavy Champions League defeat.

The Australian veteran will retire from professional cricket after the Indian Twenty20 tournament and yesterday's 44-run loss to Trinidad and Tobago leaves Somerset in dire straits.

They must now hope the West Indian side can also beat Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers tomorrow to give them a realistic chance of progressing to the next stage. Langer conceded: "We have made it a bit hard for ourselves but time will tell over the next few days.

"We are very disappointed. But Trinidad & Tobago played brilliantly – in all aspects of the game they beat us."

One of the key factors was that T&T scored 31 more runs than Somerset when the fielding restrictions were in force in the first six overs.

"We saw some footage of their top order and so in a sense we were expecting that," said Langer.

"It was quite fearless cricket – great Caribbean cricket that we have come to love for so long.

"It came off well and it was a good wicket and we just didn't play the conditions as well as we would have liked to."

Marcus Trescothick added: "Obviously the boys are all very disappointed and at the moment we feel we have let ourselves down especially when we compare it to Saturday's victory over the Deccan Chargers."

Somerset had looked slight favourites at the halfway stage after limiting T&T to 150-9.

Paceman Charl Willoughby claimed three wickets for Somerset while spinners Max Waller and Arul Suppiah also impressed.

"Once the ball got older it started to slow up," said Willoughby. "We knew we had to vary the pace. We knew if we stuck to our disciplines we could restrict them.."

Somerset were 106 all out and Langer is helpless to prevent his Indian summer being cut short. "I hope Trinidad beat Deccan now," he said. "Everyone in India will hate me for saying that.

"It is such a great tournament and it is hard to take your eyes off the TV.

"It has been brilliant cricket but we will obviously be watching the other game a bit more closely."